Obama exploits his kids to justify abortion extremism

President Obama has a secret weapon in his efforts to advance his distorted view of reproductive rights: his daughters.

The Obamas have done their best to keep Malia and Sasha out of the public eye. But the president doesn’t mind invoking them when it’s in the interest of promoting his abortion agenda. In fact, whenever you hear Obama start a sentence with “As the father of two daughters…,” it’s a safe bet he’s about to launch into a commentary on reproductive issues.

Obama saw an opportunity to talk about his kids in the Sandra Flukes controversy. The Georgetown University Law student testified at a fake congressional hearing demanding that her Catholic school pay for its students’ birth control.

The “hearing” was pure political theater. But Rush Limbaugh’s degrading remarks about Fluke prompted Obama to call Fluke to offer her his support.

“I thought about Malia and Sasha,” Obama said at a news conference when asked why he called Fluke. “And one of the things I want them…to be able to do is speak their minds in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names when they’re good citizens.”

Would that Obama considered his daughters this much when he’s signing some piece of expensive legislation that will pile even more debt on them and the rest of their generation.

Perhaps Obama imagines his daughters growing up to be just like Fluke, abortion activists crusading to force churches to violate their consciences by underwriting their employee’s contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

Obama also referenced his daughters back in January, on the anniversary of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court’s abortion decision. “As we remember this historic anniversary,” he said, “we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.”

That wasn’t the first time Obama publicly suggested that babies can be an obstacle to success and fulfillment. On the 2008 campaign trail, he infamously said the he planned to teach his daughters sex-ed because, “if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

All of this seems odd for a president who has always insisted that the media stay away from his daughters. “I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits,” Obama said in 2008.

The First Family has been understandably protective of their children’s privacy. When Beanie Babies began designing dolls resembling Malia and Sasha, Michelle Obama complained, calling the dolls “inappropriate,” and the company dropped its plans.

When a nutrition-policy group erected a poster in Washington, D.C. that called for healthy school lunches and mentioned “President Obama’s daughters,” (but not their names or pictures), the White House complained and even threatened to sue.

The media have mostly complied with the Obama’s wishes that their children be left alone. Republican children are ignored by the media except when there’s a chance to mock them or use them to embarrass their parents.

The liberal media taunted Sarah Palin’s family, prying into their personal lives and making despicable remarks about both Bristol and the Palins’ youngest child, Trig, who has Down syndrome. Rick Santorum’s eight children are talked about only in the context of his “conservative” Catholicism.

Otherwise, the only time the mainstream media sees fit to talk about Republican candidates’ children is when they come out in support of a liberal cause. George W. Bush’s twin girls were virtually ignored until one of them, Barbara, came out in support of same-sex marriage. Then she got extensive write ups in national newspapers and magazines.

I’m sure President Obama loves his daughters as much as I love my children. And I can appreciate his desire to have them live lives away from the media spotlight.

But he can’t expect to have it both ways. It’s wrong for him to ask that his kids be “off limits,” then to invoke them when it’s convenient for him, especially on a topic as divisive as abortion.

Obama may believe that by talking about his children when discussing reproductive issues he can insulate himself from scrutiny and criticism on both the left and the right. And perhaps he thinks that just the mention of his daughters will soften the perception in many voters’ minds that his abortion position is extreme and inhumane.

Perhaps he even thinks that Americans will be more likely to accept his abortion radicalism if it’s prefaced with a declaration that his views arise from his lessons and desires as a father of two daughters.

If that’s true, it’s ironic because to most Americans, children don’t instill an appreciation for destroying innocent human life. Rather, they remind us of its sanctity.